The hole the Warriors have fallen into has opened up a chance for rugby to revive itself in our biggest city; questions need to be asked about the league club’s secret bid to corner young rugby talent; and the greatest Kiwi of all has his life documented on
Sports Insider: The Blues are back and so is the battle with the Warriors for Auckland’s sporting affection
The Blues have re-ignited the battle for Auckland football supremacy.
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Meanwhile, cross-town rivals the Blues showed the courage, muscle and attitude of 25 years ago (if not the imaginative panache of the past) to successfully regain the Super Rugby champions’ mantle.
The damage the Warriors caused to themselves with their meek display on the Gold Coast is incalculable.
Suddenly, many of the (fair-weather) fans who have sold out Mt Smart for every home game this season are wondering aloud if last season may not have been the turning point we all believed it was.
And, equally suddenly, 46,000 fans witnessed how a Blues side may well resuscitate rugby in Auckland – even if half of them had to sit and watch in pouring rain in the most dreadful stadium known to man (another subject for another day).
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Whisper it quietly but the Blues are showing signs under Vern Cotter of the potential to create another dynasty, even if their blunt playing style seems at odds with the All Blacks’ approach of the last decade and more resembles a northern hemisphere approach.
The city is sensing it too.
“Stern Vern”, the man who has returned a physical backbone to the Blues, will be certainly feeling more comfortable this week than Warriors coach Andrew Webster.
Webster is feeling the blowtorch for the first time in his first-grade coaching career. It will be fascinating to watch how he reacts.
Until now, he has backed the old warhorses who served him so well last season, including Shaun Johnson, Tohu Harris and others at the expense of a growing horde of talented youngsters waiting in the wings.
Some of those kids, including boom fullback prospect Taine Tuaupiki, centre Ali Leiataua and strapping forward Zion Maiu’u helped spring memorable upset wins over NRL premiers Penrith and another top-four team this year, the Dolphins, last month, and have been impressive playing in the NSW Cup competition.
Is Saturday’s Broncos match now the biggest in the Warriors’ history?
There’s a lot at stake.
The Warriors have made staggering inroads into the psyche of Auckland but it is no understatement to suggest this Saturday night’s home clash against the visiting Brisbane Broncos carries more than just two much-needed competition points.
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It is a battle to regain savaged pride and credibility – as well as preventing a return to the nightmare crowds of 10,000 or less at Mt Smart.
Webster, voted Coach of the Year in the NRL last season, handled the post-Titans press conference impressively, but criticism is mounting that he is too committed to his veterans and the Warriors’ attack has become one-dimensional and tepid.
Another coach under early fire, Kiwi icon Benji Marshall, has overseen a mini-turnaround of last year’s wooden spooners Wests Tigers by taking a chance on youth, with 10 new players making their first-grade debut this season, including teenage playmaker Lachlan Galvin – who only turned 18 last week.
Despite plenty of youngsters knocking on the door at the Warriors, Webster has seemed reluctant to do any more than blood a few here and there.
It is somewhat concerning that the Warriors do not regularly feature a single player being hailed within the NRL as a breakthrough star this year. Galvin, Titans fullback Keano Kini, Melbourne’s Sualauvi Faalogo and Penrith’s flying Fijian Sunia Turuva already seem far more advanced in their development.
Kini embarrassed the Warriors last weekend, showing amazing flair and speed.
Kini, 20, is also an Aucklander. He was a star turn for the Northcote Tigers before slipping the Warriors’ net and being poached away by the Titans, where he quickly became one of the most dominant players in the Queensland Cup, before being elevated to the NRL.
The Warriors can’t capture every rising talent in New Zealand of course – but there seems to be an awful amount of them who appear to get away and then come back and regularly haunt them.
Which raises another issue...
Warriors haven’t earned the right to ring-fence teenage talent
An Australian news report earlier this year that the Warriors were secretly negotiating with NRL powerbrokers to gain unprecedented power over recruiting teenage rugby talent went largely unnoticed here.
But the move smacked of hubris and arrogance – let alone the undermining of the national body for the code, the New Zealand Rugby League.
A lot of the Warriors’ progress under Webster has been built on the back of convincing first XV schoolboy stars to switch codes. Adam Pompey, Rocco Berry and Tom Ale are notable examples.
The Warriors currently have 26 rugby schoolboys contracted within their development system, the largest in the club’s 30-year history, poaching them from union nurseries like Auckland Grammar, Palmerston North Boys’ High School, Rotorua High School and Hamilton Boys’ College.
But it seems that is not enough.
Warriors CEO Cameron George has been trying to get his NRL counterpart Andrew Abdo to give even greater control over ring-fencing the best young rugby and league prospects in this country.
The sell to Abdo is that the Warriors have rugby union on their knees in this country and are the only organisation that can deliver the killer blow here.
Not surprisingly, that riled one of the two South Island-based consortiums seeking an NRL expansion licence, with the Kea’s David Moffett unloading on George in a searing LinkedIn post.
Shortly afterwards, Webster came out publicly to say a second team from New Zealand in the NRL shouldn’t be happening right now.
Geez, fair amount of self-interest in that one.
And have the Warriors earned the right to control those sorts of big calls on the game’s future in this country off the back of one revived season?
Sports Insider says no.
Mark Graham “Sharko” film to feature in Auckland’s DocEdge Festival
While on rugby league, arguably the greatest Kiwi ever, Mark Graham, has had his life documented in a movie which will feature as a star turn in next month’s Auckland DocEdge festival.
It will be the first chance for Kiwis to view Sharko, which has been produced by Graham’s talented film-making son Luke, who has been making a splash in the Australian film industry for some time, including his gritty movie Broke.
This offering is far deeper than a rugby league-centric doco. Luke examines all aspects of his father’s life and talks to a host of others who have been involved with Mark.
Those who have had an early preview are raving about it.
Auckland will host a red-carpet world premiere later this year, which the great man himself, wife Jakki and Luke will attend.
But if you want an early look, Sharko will debut at Auckland’s DocEdge film festival on July 7.
Japanese Super rumours won’t go away
Sports Insider’s Australian spies tell me the prospect of Japanese teams competing in Super Rugby Pacific from as early as 2026 is gathering momentum.
The whisper from across the ditch is two teams from the Rising Sun entering the year after next, with that being upped to four sides the following season.
I’m sceptical.
A recent Sports Insider column outlined the reasons why such a move makes no sense for the Japanese given the growing strength of its domestic competition which features a host of international stars.
And would it be existing teams like Toyota or new teams? Will there be promotion-relegation for Japanese teams to feature in Super Rugby Pacific? Who will pay if they’re new teams and what’s in it for those who bankroll them?
It all looks to be in the “too hard” basket but we shall see.
Is this athletics’ new superstar?
American sports media are salivating over a 16-year-old athlete who broke a 42-year-old national record last week before just falling short of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
Quincy Wilson isn’t old enough to legally drive a car, vote or buy alcohol but has advanced to Tuesday’s 400m final at the US Olympic track and field trials with two history-making races in three days.
Wilson ran 44.59s in his heat to break a US high school record which has stood for almost half a century – before then breaking it again in finishing third in his semi.
He eventually finished sixth in the final but there’s a chance he could be added to the 4x400m relay team for Paris.
“Three consecutive sub-44s is just amazing,” he said after the final. “All I know is I gave it everything I had, and I can’t be disappointed. At the end of the day, I’m 16 running grown man times.”
Team of the Week
Sophie Egnot-Johnson: The sporting genes run strongly in the Egnot family. Sophie’s Mum is Lesley Egnot, silver medalist sailor at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Sophie is a rower and clearly a chip off the old block as seen in winning the single sculls at the coveted Henley Regatta on the river Thames in England. She also won the 18-24 age group title at the Ironman Taupo triathlon last March and is planning a crack at the Under-23 World Championships at the same venue in December. That’s one talented lady.
Scottie Scheffler: The American has become the most dominant golfer since Tiger Woods, becoming the first player since Arnold Palmer to achieve six PGA wins in a year before July. Scheffler has already earned US$27.7 million ($45m) in prizemoney this year and could top US$60m by the end of 2024. Then there’s his endorsements on top. Phew!
Afghanistan: Brought a smile to the faces of Kiwis by knocking over the convicts in the T20 World Cup.
